Obama on Tuesday strongly criticized Trump for praising Russian President Vladimir Putin and for appearing on a TV channel, RT, funded by the Russian government.

“Unfortunately, we see continued displays of often hard-core Russophobia,” Kremlin spokesman Dmitry Peskov, commenting on Obama’s intervention, told a conference call with reporters. “We can only express regret in this regard.

“This rhetoric, which is being formulated in electoral campaign style … is unlikely to help fledgling fragile attempts to build at least some sort of mutual trust.”